Chasing History

The Indianapolis Colts are marching towards history, and last night they got one step closer with a thrilling win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. With just two games left on the schedule, the Colts might become just the third NFL team to run the table in the regular season. Of course the Saints can do the same thing this year, but we don’t play the Saints in Week 17, now do we?

So here’s the question: do you want to see the Colts win it all? I think almost every Bills fan will have the same initial answer: of freaking course. Considering the only two teams to ever do it play in the same division as Buffalo, there are a lot of people hoping the Colts or Saints go all the way to the Super Bowl and finally shut the Dolphins and Patriots up. (Sidenote: 18-0 Colts vs. 18-0 Saints. Greatest Super Bowl ever? Greatest Super Bowl ever.)

If you want to see it happen, however, it will have to come at a Bills loss. Now that doesn’t seem like much of a problem; the Colts are really freaking good and the Bills are not. Peyton Manning is an absolute monster and will rip the secondary apart if he plays. If he plays.

That’s the problem about that last game. By then there will be literally no reason to play your stars with home field advantage locked up. The Ralph will be cold, fantasy football will be over, and no one wants to see Peyton go down with an injury for the sake of a perfect season. Losing the chance to run the table might not be worth losing in the playoffs because you got greedy, right?

Well, maybe. Thanks to an injury to Sorgi, Peyton’s backup is someone named Curtis Painter, a rookie from Perdue who has never thrown an NFL pass in his life. I know the Colts tend to be conservative with their franchise player, but it may not be the best of ideas to throw this kid in front of the Bills, either.

What we have here is a conundrum, but perhaps this is easier than I’m making it: let your players play and go for the record. That’s what I’m sort of hoping for, because then it makes deciding whether to go or not easy. Put it this way, if there is a chance significant NFL history will be made at Ralph Wilson Stadium then I want to see it. I’ll still root for the Bills, I’ll still be very cold; but no matter what happens at that game I think it will be worth the price of admission.

But maybe I’m making too much out of this. Maybe the Colts will lose to the Jets at home with nine days to prepare, and maybe six feet of snow fall on January 2 and I want no part of sitting outside for four hours on a Sunday. Still, I’m hoping the last game of the year has a significance very few games ever have.